1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing management device, method and system and a recording medium that stores a program, for adaptively selecting a printer to be used from multiple printers or printing conditions. Particularly, the present invention relates to printout management/control techniques suitable for realization of services that provide a printed matter on appropriate output conditions according to an order from a customer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-134399 (PTL 1) discloses a system that selects an optimal printer from a group of multiple printers based on viewpoints of output image quality, printing time and printing cost (paragraphs [0065] to of PTL 1). Japanese Patent No. 4037011 (PTL 2) discloses a printer selection apparatus that analyzes printing data to predict output image quality, and selects a printer used for printing according to an image quality level condition specified by an operator and printing completion expected time. Japanese Patent No. 4298050 (PTL 3) discloses a method of visualizing a tradeoff of image quality versus costs with respect to operation of image processing parameters that influence image quality at the time of printout, and enabling a customer to select a printout image. Specifically, by presenting a graph showing a change in the image quality with respect to a percentage of under color removal (UCR) and a graph showing a relationship of costs of coloring agents to the customer, the customer can perform setting taking into account the image quality versus costs.